Suspect in Nightclub Attack Faces Murder, Bias Charges

The suspect in the mass shooting at a Colorado Springs nightclub over the weekend has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of bias-motivated crime, court records show. A judge granted a prosecution request on Monday to seal the arrest warrant, NBC News reports. Were the information in it to become public, a deputy district attorney wrote, "it could jeopardize the ongoing case investigation." Colorado uses the term "bias-motivated crime" for what other jurisdictions call "hate crime," the El Paso County district attorney told CNN.

Police chief Adrian Vasquez said Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, who's hospitalized with injuries, has not given a statement or talked to investigators. The charges he faces so far are preliminary and could change, officials said. The attack "has all the trappings of a hate crime," Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said early Monday, per Fox News. In an appearance on NBC's Today, Suthers cautioned that more information needs to be considered "before we make any definitive conclusions about a motivation." Police on Monday revised the number of people injured in the attack at Club Q, a gay nightspot, to 19—17 of whom were shot, per the New York Times. (Authorities say the shooter was stopped when a nightclub patron hit him with one of his own guns.)